Boston Marathon bomber doesn’t deserve new trial

Not only was federal Judge George O’Toole Jr. unswayed by Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s arguments for a new trial, he let it be known that the death sentence for the terrorist wasn’t enough.

On Friday, Judge O’Toole ordered Tsarnaev, 22, who was convicted and sentenced to death last year in the 2013 attack, to pay more than $101 million to the victims. To be sure, the order is largely symbolic because the killer is in federal prison and has no ability to pay.

Nonetheless, even symbolism has the effect of making the American people feel good about the criminal justice system.

It’s a system that worked fairly and efficiently in this very high-profile case of domestic terrorism.

During the sentencing hearing after the trial and guilty verdict, Tsarnaev admitted that he and his older brother, Tamerlan, committed the bombings at the 2013 Boston Marathon. Two pressure cooker bombs were placed near the finish line by the brothers. Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was also convicted of killing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer days after the bombings. His brother, 26, died later in a gunbattle with police.

Prior to his being sentenced to death, the killer apologized to the victims. At the time, we questioned his sincerity, noting that never once during or after the trial did he speak the words, “I’m sorry.” His apology obviously was prompted by the realization that he will have a date with the executioner.

Unfortunately, given the slowness with which death-penalty cases move through the system, it could be more than a decade before the domestic terrorist will receive the punishment he deserves.

COLD-BLOODED MURDERERS

He and his brother were cold-blooded murderers who knew what would happen when they detonated the pressure-cooker bombs at the Boston Marathon finish line. Their targets were not military, but civilian. They saw many children as they weaved their way through the crowds.

The explosions claimed the lives of three: Eight-year-old Martin Richard; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford, Mass.; and Lu Lingzi, 23, an exchange student from China. Martin’s sister, Jane, who was 6 at the time, and his mother, Denise, were seriously injured.

More than 200 marathon participants and spectators were injured, with many having to have their lower limbs amputated or requiring extensive treatment and long periods of rehabilitation.

On April 18, 2013, the FBI released photos and a surveillance video of the brothers, who were born in eastern Europe but had lived in the United States for some time.

The suspects killed Sean Collier, 26, an MIT campus policeman, carjacked an SUV and exchanged gunfire with police in Watertown, Mass.

A police officer was injured, while Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot several times. He died at the scene when his brother drove over him as he made his getaway.

Dzhokhar was found by a Watertown resident on April 19, hiding in a boat parked in his backyard. The suspect was shot by police while in the boat and was taken to a hospital.

During an interrogation in the hospital, he said his brother was the mastermind of the attack. He also claimed they were influenced by Islamic extremists who accuse America and other countries of waging war on Islam.

The fact that the two brothers were living in a country that provided them with the freedom and comfort not found elsewhere made their hatred of America all the more incomprehensible.

Indeed, even now Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is using the tools of the democracy that he so despises to try to save his neck.

In seeking a new trial, his lawyers argued that he could not receive fair treatment in Boston, where many people knew the victims or had connections to the marathon.

The lawyers also cited intense and continuing local news coverage of the victims and the anniversary of the bombing.

To Judge O’Toole’s credit, that argument fell flat. He noted that the victims, the trial and other marathon-related events also were covered widely by national and international news outlets.

“There is no reason to think – and certainly no specific evidence – that this extensive coverage would have been any different in kind or degree if the trial had been conducted elsewhere,” the judge wrote.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev does not deserve a new trial. Rather, he needs the criminal justice system to speed up so he is put to death sooner – rather than later. He has admitted to being a killer.